People living with serious mental illness (SMI) face a greater risk of developing preventable physical illness that significantly decreases the quality and length of their life. We know and understand that individuals who have SMI frequently find it difficult to engage with clinical staff and services. This may hinder their ability to receive their annual physical health checks, which are important to improve their quality of life.
As part of an initiative addressing inequality and enabling everyone in our communities to feel supported and heard in their everyday lives and more likely to engage with services, a programme named SMI Engagement Training was created from the voice of lived experience. It was co-produced by Experts by Experience and is now co-delivered by a diverse lived experience team across Somerset.
We want to expand our lived experience team and invite more volunteers to join us!
The training program was very positively received by previous attendees, who described it as “Reassuring, informative and skill enhancing”, and our team is keen to get as many people across the county booked into the last few dates we have available!
We’re running sessions on January 11th, February 8th and March 14th 2024 from 10 am to 12.30 pm on Microsoft Teams.
If you’d like to book a place for yourself or your team, please email PHCSomerset@rethink.org